Change has no constituency.
There is nothing that Nature seems to have inclined us to as much as society.
Men are able to assist fortune but not to thwart her. They can weave her designs, but they cannot destroy them.
When every province of the world so teems with inhabitants that they can neither subsist where they are nor remove themselves elsewhere.
Present wars impoverish the lords that win as much as those that lose.
There is no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt.